On the penultimate stage of the Tour de France, Jonas Vingegaard just missed out on a chance to put an exclamation point on his all-but-assured general classification victory.
The Jumbo-Visma leader was in a three-man group at the front with Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates and Felix Gall of AG2R Citroen Team on the final climb of the Tour’s final mountain stage on Saturday. Pogacar’s teammate Adam Yates, and Yates’ brother Simon (Team Jayco AlUla) caught the three, however, and then Adam gave Pogacar a lead out to the finish line. Vingegaard tried to jump Pogacar, momentarily sprinting ahead of him, but Pogacar was able to counter and fly by Vingegaard to get his second stage win of this year’s Tour.
Gall ended up crossing second and Vingegaard was third. Pogacar, however, was only able to cut six seconds off Vingegaard’s lead, from 7:35 on 7:29, with only the procession to Paris remaining.
Vingegaard will be wearing the yellow leader’s jersey when he crosses the finish line in Paris for the second straight year. Barring an accident or incident, he will win the Tour de France for the second time on Sunday.
“It’s an indescribable feeling,” he said. “We have to be careful and not do anything crazy tomorrow, but now I can say that the win is almost certain. It’s great to take my second overall victory in the Tour de France. I can hardly believe it. I enjoyed the stage today as I have every day of this Tour. I felt good on the bike.”
Vingegaard also praised the performance of his Jumbo-Visma teammates, which includes Durangoan Sepp Kuss.
“I could never have done this without this fantastic team,” Vingegaard said. “They were there for me every day. They gave it their all for three weeks. I am so happy for all of us. Once again, it feels like a team victory. So it is not difficult for me to know what my best memory of this Tour de France is. For me, it was the way we worked as a team. We had a plan, and we executed it well every day. Everything went according to plan.”
Kuss, however, had some trouble individually during Stage 20. Kuss and Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) were both roughed up in a crash. Both riders were able to finish, but needed aid from the medical car before they were able to finish. Kuss started the day ninth in the GC, only 16:49 back. After Stage 20, however, he slid out of the top 10 to 12th overall after finishing 83rd on the stage and was 37:32 back. Rodriguez battled back to finish 12th on the stage, but slipped from fourth to fifth in the GC (+13:17) behind Simon Yates (+12:23) and Adam Yates (+10:56).
Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek scored 17 climbing points to extend his king of the mountain lead and essentially lock up the polka-dot jersey. Ciccone has 105 points, followed by Gall with 92 and Vingegaard with 89.
Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek also scored 20 points in the green jersey race, but Jasper Philipsen’s four stage wins for Alpecin-Deceuninck have him with a huge lead heading to Paris. Pedersen has 258 points, trailing Philipsen by 119.
Pogacar, a two-time Tour de France winner, will likely win the white youth jersey as a consolation for the second year in a row. Pogacar leads Rodriguez by 5:48.
Jumbo-Visma also has a 13:49 lead over UAE Team Emirates in the team race.
The yellow jersey, however, is the ultimate prize.
“It was a great battle between Tadej and myself,” Vingegaard said. “We rode on the edge for three weeks. It must have been lovely to watch. It was fun for us, too. It was a fight I will remember for the rest of my life. Tadej is a wonderful person. Since the start in Bilbao, we have given each other a hard time, but off the bike, we get on well. I hope we can have many more duels like this in the future.”
